Airport committee hopes to decide on new director

By Staff Writer

The Augusta Aviation Commission will meet today in a special meeting, and the topic again is expected to be the search for a new airport director.

What is decided at the meeting could end more than a week of interviews and deliberations about who should become Augusta Regional Airport's next director, say members of the aviation's board's search subcommittee.

The group, which interviewed four candidates last week, is responsible for making a recommendation to the full board. The 7-member committee met Tuesday to again review the candidates and ended up recessing without deciding who to recommend, said Bernie Silverstein, the search subcommittee's chairman.

The group is scheduled to reconvene at 1:15 p.m. today - 15 minutes before the full board will meet.

"We're going to hopefully have a candidate to recommend to the full commission," Mr. Silverstein said. Other subcommittee members declined to comment other than saying that Mr. Silverstein was handling all media inquiries about the meeting.

The director position has been vacant for more than a year since the aviation board fired Al McDill in April 2000. The board started a search last year, but scrapped the names and started over - this time hiring an aviation consulting company to conduct a nationwide search.

Three of the finalists were recommended by a consulting company and interviewed last week, along with Tim Weegar, who has served as Augusta Regional's interim director since Mr. McDill left.

The other finalists are: Ken Kraemer, airport manager for Dubuque Regional Airport in Dubuque, Iowa; Dan Mann, airport manager for Natrona County International Airport in Casper, Wyo.; and Dan Weber, director of aviation for Brownsville/South Padre International Airport in Brownsville, Texas.